A Métis elder from Ile a la Crosse said Canada needs to continue seeking the truth in the discovery of unmarked graves and burials at former residential school sites.
Jimmy Durocher, who attended residential school for nine-years in Northern Saskatchewan, spoke nationally during the first ceremony to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
“A lot a young people come and ask me, what are we going to do about those children that were discovered? Why did that have to happened? What can we do? Everybody’s confused about what can we do. They never made it home,” Durocher said. “We need to get to the bottom of that. We need to get to the truth. Before the any reconciliation can happen. And we’re well on our way, we are well on our way. We need to do this together.”
The Cowessess First Nation claims to have identified approximately 300 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval residential school. Not all the 751 unmarked graves discovered earlier this summer are believed to be of children who attended the school. The Catholic Church suspects some of its parishioners could be buried there, as too might be neighbouring community members.
“There’s still a lot of questions out there. Many of these children that were buried there, there were no records of them. That is a terrible thing for us, to witness and we need to do something about that,” explained Durocher.
Durocher, pushed the federal government, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sitting behind him during his address Wednesday to recognize the Ile a la Crosse residential school, which is not listed among the official residential schools in the country.
“The acknowledgments are critical to incorporating the truth into the nation’s collective consciousness. It’s very important that not just us that are here today are the survivors that are out there that are still suffering, that are still need to deal with this issue, the mental health needs that are there, not just for them, but for all Canadians to understand, so that we can fix this together as one Canada,” said Durocher.
(Screenshot of Jimmy Durocher.)